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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25819714">The Only Exception</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinxOfTheFlamingHeart/pseuds/PrinxOfTheFlamingHeart'>PrinxOfTheFlamingHeart</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Two Princes (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Amir's POV, Fluffy, M/M, POV First Person, Yeah based on the Paramore song</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:48:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>862</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25819714</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinxOfTheFlamingHeart/pseuds/PrinxOfTheFlamingHeart</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Amir reflects on everything he's learned of love from everyone he's known. From his mothers, to his subjects, and finally to the only exception to all the rules, Rupert.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Prince Amir &amp; Prince Rupert (Two Princes Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>53</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Only Exception</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When I was young, my mother read to me many stories. I loved the ones about dragons, fair maidens, knights in shining armor, and above them all, how true love could save the day. Stories you would tell any child. Fantasies. Dragons were extinct, I'd learn later. Fair maidens could be trouble, or mean, or too clingy. Knights in shining armor got dirty. </p><p>And true love?</p><p>On my seventh birthday, my mother cleared her day out and spent all of it with me. She woke me up, helped me bathe, and dressed me in something nice but practical. We went out into the city and she showed me her favorite places. Not just shops and restaurants, but parks, and monuments to old kings, long-ago battles, and important moments. We met so many nice people and it seemed everyone loved my mother. </p><p>When we returned, we ate a light dinner and she took me to my room. As she helped me get ready for bed, she sang. The songs were light and dealt with the coming of autumn, of good harvests, of ships returning from the sea and of honoring good people now gone.</p><p>My heavy eyes closed and I knew sleep wasn't far off. But then she sang one song that stayed with me. It was a slow, haunting song. Her husky voice expressed, beyond even words, a painful sense of loss. The kind of loss that happens slowly, breaking your heart in front of your face, as you are powerless to stop it. A loss that leaves one cursing the wind. From the tears on her face, I learned.</p><p>Love does not exist. Not the kind of love that can save the day, at least. </p><p>My mother would never speak of love, or of my father except as a cautionary tale. Even with the comfortable distance I kept from everyone, I'd heard plenty about love. The men-at-arms would bellow a drinking song about young women and poor choices. My mother's ladies would let out a song full of flowery words and empty promises. One particularly annoying tutor would hum a favorite song about the hunt, the chase, and then moving on to the next conquest. Love could be reckless, obsessive, and fleeting, but I knew deep in my soul that love never lasts. I turned to my mother as an example of how to make it alone but keep a straight face. </p><p>In a paradisiacal waterfall in a cursed forest, I found the only exception to those rules. In the Hollow of the Kings, love saved a boy unlike anyone I'd ever seen. On a dusty road in the Hinterlands, I learned that love remained, even if the lovers couldn't stay together. In the castle we built, I learned that love could be so firmly embedded that losing everything else couldn't break it. </p><p>Rupert broke into my quiet introspection by gently bumping our shoulders together. I came back to awareness in the great dining hall, seated next to the love of my life and our friends and family. It was a noisy room, but he was close enough to whisper to me. "You have entirely too serious a face on right now. It's our anniversary, silly. You want to tell me what I can do to make you smile, my love?"</p><p>It was so Rupert, to not insist that one must smile but to ask what it would take to see me happy. I gazed back into his lovely eyes and felt a smile spread across my face. "All you have to do is keep calling me 'my love.'"</p><p>He shook his head, grinning like a fool. Picking up his fork, he lifted a piece of cake to my lips. "Well then, my love, you haven't had nearly enough of this cake we picked out." A little self-conscious, I quickly took the bite before Cecily or Lavinia could get in some comment or another. </p><p>I lifted my glass and Rupert did his, entwining our arms as we had on our wedding day. We drank together, to the collective cheers and groans from those around us. </p><p>"You guys really are the biggest saps in the kingdom," Joan said as we lowered our glasses.</p><p>"C'mon, Joanie, let's show them how it's done!" Cecily said excitedly, accidentally spilling her glass in Joan's lap. "Oops!" As the pair scrambled with napkins, Lavinia and Atossa toasted across the table from each other and shook their heads. Lord Chamberlain lifted his glass with a smile to both of us. </p><p>There was so much love around us, that I took it a step further and pulled on Rupert's lapel. "If you really want to know what I was thinking?" I whispered.</p><p>Rupert blushed as he nodded, wordlessly.</p><p>"After a whole childhood of being sure that love wasn't real, I'm so happy to find that you are, in every way, exceptional." He gave out a soft sound before our lips connected. Rupert practically melted into our kiss, to renewed cheers. </p><p>Maybe love wasn't eternal, but there really was only one way to find out for sure. As for me, I was definitely on my way to believing in it.</p>
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